Farooq Ahmed Dar, alias Bitta Karate, is an Indian militant. He is said to have Pakistani citizenship. Farooq is the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a militant separatist group active in Kashmir (as of 2022). He is notorious for the killing of Kashmiri Hindus during the 1990 ethnic cleansing.
Wiki/Biography
Farooq Ahmed Dar was born on Monday, January 1, 1973, in Gurubazar (near the city of Srinagar), Kashmir Valley (49 years; as of 2022). His zodiac sign is Capricorn. Growing up, he studied martial arts and became proficient in it within a few years. Initially working for the family business, Dar left home in his early 20s and went to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for militancy training.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′8″
Hair color: black
Eye color: brown
family
He was born into a Muslim family of the Dhar clan in Kashmir.
Parents and siblings
Farooq’s mother’s name is Fatima. Little is known about his father. He has a brother.
wife and children
Farooq Ahmed Dar married Assbah Arzoomand Khan on 1 November 2011. Assbah Arzoomand Khan was a State Administrative Service Officer (Jammu and Kashmir) and was working as a probation officer in the General Administration Department at the time of her marriage.
Farooq Ahmed Dar’s wife
Relationships/Girlfriends
Farooq Ahmed Dar first met Assbah Arzoomand Khan in 2008 at a friend’s house. Soon, Farooq proposed to Asba and she agreed after initial hesitation. They dated for about a year and a half before deciding to get married. Asba’s parents were initially opposed to their relationship because they did not want their daughter to marry an ex-militant. However, after much persuasion from Asba, Farooq and their families, her parents agreed. In an interview, Asbah said of Farooq:
In most families in the valley you will find a situation where one son is a militant and the other son works in the government. Being married to an ex-militant was not at all strange to me. My family was initially opposed to the marriage, but within reason. The most attractive thing about Farooq and I is that we belong to the same community. I like Farooq’s decision-making skills. “
combat journey
Distressed by the government in the Kashmir Valley, Farooq embarked on a path of terror at just 20 years old. In 1988, he was handpicked by Ashfaq Majeed Wani, the then commander-in-chief of the JKLF, and received 32 days of armed training in a state-sponsored training camp for Pakistani militants. Dar and other trainees were blindfolded and driven across the Line of Control to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where a training camp was set up.
Participating in the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits
In the 1990s, Farooq Ahmad Dar went on to unleash a wave of violence on the streets of Srinagar after returning from weapons training in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Armed, he walked the streets looking for Kashmiri Pandits and shot them with pistols wherever he found them. Apparently, he had received execution orders from Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front senior Ashfaq Majeed Wani. Bitar is said to have killed about 20 people, mostly Kashmiri Pandits. During the exodus of 1990, Kashmiri Pandits were asked to choose between “Raliv, Galiv ya Chaliv” (convert, die or leave). Many of them were killed in the armed conflict and thousands of Pandit families migrated from Kashmir during the 1990 insurgency. While Bita was killing civilians with his pistol, he was attacking Indian security forces with an AK-47. In an interview, Dr Anishekhar, convenor of the Kashmiri immigrant scholars’ organization ‘Panun Kashmir’, criticized the state (Jammu and Kashmir) government for releasing Bita even after he announced the killing of 42 Hindus. He said,
We are shocked that a man who openly claimed to have murdered 42 Kashmiri Pandits is walking free. It is also ironic that Afzal Guru was sentenced to death in the Parliament attack case and even though he was not present, those who confessed to Pandit’s murder are walking free. “
Furthermore, Anishekhar said it was the failure of the state (Jammu and Kashmir) to punish Bita for his crimes that angered Kashmiri Pandits.
Kashmir Pandit Sabha chairman TN Khosa also questioned the state’s (Jammu and Kashmir) ability to try Farooq, the ringleader of Pandit’s killings in the 1990s. He said,
It is deeply regrettable that the state government has not taken steps to try Pandit’s killers. I can only pray for those at the helm and advise them not to play with the emotions of Kashmiri scholars. “
The targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits reportedly began in January 1990, soon after the then federal minister Mufti Mohammad Saeed’s daughter Rubaiya was abducted and killed by some horrific terrorists. Ended with release. Farooq led the escape and was the chief killer of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) until his arrest in June 1990.
Kill his childhood friend
During the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, Farooq Ahmad Dar’s first victim was his childhood friend Satish Kumar Tickoo )(merchant). Dar shot him dead in front of his (Satish’s) house. Farooq revealed in an interview that he killed Satish after receiving orders. He said Satish was killed because he belonged to a Kashmiri Pandit family and was a follower of the RSS.
Convictions and Arrests
Farooq admitted in an interview that about 20 people (most of them Kashmiri Pandits) were killed during the 1990 Kashmir insurgency. But he later claimed he had not killed anyone and that his previous claims were made under duress. On June 22, 1990, Farooq and two of his associates were arrested by the Srinagar Border Security Force. He faces around 19 terrorism-related cases and is detained in various jails across India under the Public Safety Act. He is officially detained in Jammu’s Kot Bharwal Jail, Kathua District Jail, Jodhpur Central Jail and Agra Central Jail. Dahl was detained for about 16 years.
bail and release
On October 23, 2006, Farooq was granted bail for four months by the Jammu Enforcement Court of the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA Court). On October 25, 2006, he was handed over to his family. He was granted bail on a bond of Rs 1 lakh and a personal surety. India’s Supreme Court later quashed his detention under the Public Safety Act. Judge Varney said when delivering the verdict:
The court was aware that the charges against the accused were of a serious nature, punishable by death or life imprisonment, but the fact was that the prosecution showed complete disinterest in arguing the case. “
After the court verdict, Dahl was released after serving 16 years in prison. While Farooq’s release was condemned by many Kashmiri Pandit groups, Farooq was warmly welcomed by Kashmiri supporters. He was taken by the JKLF to the Guru Chowk area of Kashmir where a large number of supporters gathered near his house and showered flower petals and confetti on him. Dar addressed his supporters and traveled to Eid to pay tribute to his militant colleagues who were killed by security forces in 1990.
Farooq Ahmed Dar welcomed by supporters after being released from prison
Political career
After being released from prison in 2006, Dar joined the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and later became the organization’s president.
Arrested for financing terrorism
In 2019, Bita was arrested again by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for financing terrorism. The NIA has charged Farooq and others accused of “conspiring to wage war against the government” and fomenting unrest in the Kashmir Valley. As of 2022, he has been officially detained by the National Bureau of Investigation.
Facts/Trivia
- Farooq Ahmed Dar is also known as Bitta Karate. While “Bitta” was his childhood nickname, he added karate to this nickname due to his proficiency in martial arts.
- He claimed in interviews that he would have killed his mother or brother if he had been ordered to do so by his superiors.
- Jammu and Kashmir Police Commissioner JN Saxena once described him as:
He’s not the most terrifying terrorist, but he is a compulsive killer. He committed some horrific murders in front of women and children. “
- Bita is also known as the “Butcher of Pandit”.
- On March 11, 2022, a Hindi film based on the 1990 Kashmiri Pandit genocide was released in India. The film is written and directed by Indian film director Vivek Agnihotri. In the film, Dar is portrayed as “Farooq Malik Bitta”, a character played by Indian actor Chinmay Mandlekar.
Chinmay Mandlekar as Farooq Malik Bitta in The Kashmir Files
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education